Attending Grinnell College

I made the decision to join The Courant in my junior year, and in doing so, I’ve been allowed to express thought-provoking stories to my fellow students through a club that fosters creativity and interconnectedness. 

I didn’t consciously pursue creative and journalistic writing throughout high school. My English classes gave me two routes: a cookie-cutter novel analysis or a glorified art project. These options didn’t satisfy my itch to choose my own subject matter. Furthermore, my research classes taught me to be more analytical and format-abiding. This proved a problem when writing my first story as Mrs. Semple simply put it; the story seemed like a research paper with the amount of digging and sourcing I did rather than talking to people face to face. 

I made sure to rectify this issue in later editions, and the experience I gained from doing so defined how I interacted with students and staff members at this high school. Whether it was talking to Mr Patterson about the implications of AI to Mr Suchopar about student life it seemed as if The Courant opened a Pandora’s box of personability. 

Since my genuine interest drove me to pursue writing my stories, I didn’t want to take my fingers off the keys. I wrote stories that approached a topic from different angles, and I wanted to be as thorough as possible. My shotty grammar mistakes were graciously corrected by my fellow board members, and I let out a sigh of relief every time I noticed our stories posted on the website. 

I’d go as far as to say The Courant was integral to my sanity, keeping things fresh while I trimmed down the mound of papers and Google Classroom assignments that comprised the IB Diploma. I can’t thank Mrs. Semple enough for running The Courant with such a genuine passion and interest for journalism and for seeing every club student succeed. 

Now that the sappy stuff is out of the way, I would like to acknowledge the position of Social Media Manager that I helped create at the club. I guess this was my crowning achievement, aside from the superfluous stories. I hope to see this position really take charge in the years to come and allow for a blend of creativity and tech savviness to promote The Courant’s material best. 

This club has reminded me of how important journalism is to society. With everything going on in the world, it is imperative that citizens know accurate and verified information and that fake news and propagandized news don’t become the norm in our rapidly changing social climate. Whatever type of journalism it may be, the interests and goodwill of the people should always be served. Just in my senior year alone, I’ve observed how important it is that established facts be made clear to everyone, which, in essence, is the definition of news journalism.

Now that I have my eyes set on college, I hope to continue my interest in journalism there and use everything I learned from The Courant to help me in my endeavors. 

Thank you for reading. ◼️